Baking powder is a raising agent that is commonly used in cake-making. It is made from an alkali…

orange candied peel, to decorate

For the chocolate ganache

200g plain chocolate, broken into pieces

225ml double cream

Method

Pierce the orange with a skewer (right through). Cook in boiling water for 30 minutes until soft. Whizz the whole orange in a food processor until smooth; let cool.

Preheat the oven to 180C/gas 4/fan 160C.Grease and line the base of a 23cm/9in round cake tin. Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water or in the microwave for 2 minutes on High, stirring after 1 minute. Let cool.

In a large bowl, lightly beat the eggs, sugar and oil. Gradually beat in the puréed orange, discarding any pips, then stir in the cooled melted chocolate. Sift in the cocoa, flour and baking powder. Mix well and pour into the tin. Bake in the centre of the oven for 55 minutes, or until the cake springs back when lightly pressed in the middle. (Check after 45 minutes and cover with foil if it is browning too much.) Allow to cool for 10 minutes in the tin, then turn out on to a wire rack to cool completely.

Make the chocolate ganache: put the chocolate into a heatproof bowl. Bring the cream to the boil and pour over the chocolate. Leave for 2 minutes, then stir until smooth. Set aside until firm enough to spread over the cake – up to 1½ hours.

Transfer the cake to a serving plate. Using a palette knife, swirl the ganache over the top. Decorate with strips of candied orange peel.

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Comments, questions and tips

this cake was heavy. dry. not sweet at all. barely tasted like orange. do not make!

Dimples123

6th Feb, 2017

5.05

Superb! Bit dubious at first about putting a whole orange in peel included but the puree it created was lovely. So yes to those asking, boil the whole orange and skin. Then place whole orange with skin in blender. The cake is fairly rich but so very good. It didn't last that long I would say with the freshness. A day later and the sponge was a little dry. Will make again though.
I definitely halved all the topping ingredients - more than enough covering with just half. Plus a lot cheaper too!

Pratimahegde

17th Jan, 2017

Planning to make this cake. Is orange boiled and pureed with skin?

nelster

21st Nov, 2016

5.05

I bake this as the basis for cake pops, birthday cakes and it is a hit! Everyone comments on the moist, lovely orange and chocolate taste!
It was well received as a cake donation to Macmillan coffee event locally and it was a success! Love the recipe!

Foodandfriends

11th Oct, 2016

5.05

This is a fantastic recipe!! Made the cake as cupcakes and baked it for about 20 minutes, can't remember exactly. It was really, really delicious. The orange flavour did come through even though I didn't use orange flavoured chocolate, just plain dark chocolate as the recipe recommends. It is a subtle flavour but really good, it's quite sophisticated and not too sweet. I didn't have any cream so just made a chocolate buttercream for the top and I thought it went together very well. Decorated with some chocolate shavings and candied peel. It was for a coffee morning and got loads of compliments, people really liked them. One of the best bakes I've ever made! Original and unique as well as scrummy :)

Emycakes

11th Sep, 2016

3.8

Made this for my mums birthday recently. I used terrys chocolate orange and double cream on top and lindt orange chocolate in the cake. Surprisingly moist, the orange really makes it. Received lots of compliments.

slaurentino

28th Jul, 2016

5.05

This cake is delicious! The texture and the lovely orange and chocolate smell are delightful. Definitely one of the very best chocolate cakes in my recipe collection, which is rather large. I've done it with tangerine as well and it turned out even more fragrant than the original.

vic_1066

28th Nov, 2015

1.3

We were really disappointed with this. It is far too rich and not that orangey. It was easy to make and worked well. But we really didn't enjoy eating it that much. It was best in small pieces with ice cream but my children actually refused to eat any after the first slice. I am freezing the rest to use with ice cream. Would not recommend.

rgkjersey

28th Nov, 2015

5.05

We have just had our first slices of this amazing cake. Following the previous advice, I used orange-flavoured chocolate (Lindt Dark Chocolate with Orange and Almonds) both in the cake and for the ganache. There are no Seville oranges in the shops at the moment so I used a large ordinary orange and popped a teaspoon of orange essence into the cake mix. It was strange putting the orange (cut into quarters) into my food processor but the resulting puree looked great and there were no pips. The cake is dense, soft, amazingly chocolate-y and simply delicious. The nibs of almonds give a little extra texture to the icing. I found chocolate orange popping segments for decoration and sprinkled tiny edible silver stars over the cake. The effect was enchanting. I would make this again and again as it was so easy to do but tastes fabulous, so you get a LOT of compliments for little effort!!

julieigg1962

28th May, 2015

This took a little longer to cook than the recipe stated, I needed an additional 10 minutes. Make sure its entirely cool before adding the frosting. Most people loved this, but a couple would have liked a little more orange in the flavour. I guess it depends on the orange that you use. Easy to follow and came out really well.

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